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Patrick Grant is an American composer who lives in New York and composes music in an experimental style close to minimalism the likes of Philip Glass and John Cage, with a more creativity leaning to his compositions. Patrick is also very closely involved in producing live concerts and installations of both other composers and his own performances. He’s also a professor in the Film School at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
French composer Laurent Perrier has a number of projects all built around a central idea, with Zonk't being the ambient arm of his creative beast. Returning again to the Sound on Probation label, Zonk't brings forth the LP Banburismus, a 37 minute, four track exploration into ambient and minimalist dub. Composed entirely with modular synthesizers, Banburismus is a meditative journey through the creation of sound and feeling.
Originally released in 1999, Cold Spring has brought back the collaboration between scene legends Merzbow and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge for a third issue. Not only available in an 8-page digipak, but A Perfect Pain is now on vinyl for the first time. With both black and limited flaxen gold versions available on 180g vinyl, new purchasers and those looking to upgrade have nice options in front of them. In addition to the new packaging and vinyl issue, Cold Spring has had both versions of this 20th anniversary remastered by The Cage Studios. This upgrade in both sound quality and packaging shows Cold Spring's dedication not only to releasing new sonic mayhem, but also ensuring that their classic catalog titles sound and look their best
Cold Spring Records presents their 2nd release this year from Italy's She Spread Sorrow. This time it's a reissue of SSS's 2nd album Mine. Originally released last year on vinyl, Cold Spring offers a new digipak CD edition with two bonus songs not found on Mine's original pressing.
Formed in 1984 by tragic guitarist/band leader Euronymous, bassist Necrobutcher and drummer Manheim, Mayhem are a phenomenon that have never been far from controversy, whether that is the suicide of frontman Dead, Euronymous’s murder at the hands of Count Grishnakh (varg Vikernes), church burnings, accusations of racism, the list goes on. What often gets overlooked is the amazing music the band have produced during their long and mostly successful career.
Appearing two months after the first Vol, here’s the second in the new series of albums from Austrian sound artist Rudolf Eb.er. Much like the first vol, this new thirty-one track CD release once again offers up a decidedly queasy & unbalancing blend of pared-back psycho ambience, weird body sounds, backwards texts, amped-up tape hiss, drowsy siren waves, and creepy field recordings- adding in more strange percussive elements, and a generally more unsettling ‘n’ truly uncomfortable vibe- all making this one of the most disturbing, and truly unnerving sonic experiences in recent memory.
Ultrafunk where a seemingly faceless & mysterious collective from the Uk- who during the mid-1970’s released a selection of singles & two full-length album, then promptly disappeared. The project summoned up an often fairly gimmick bound, yet always brightly grooving mixer of funk & disco- with forays into tribal percussion & flute heavy jiving jazz-ness. Here on Robinsongs, one of the Cherry Red labels is a double CD reissue bringing together the bands two albums, and a good selection of bonus material.
God Knows Where I Am is beautiful crafted & conceived, yet deeply moving & achingly sad documentary about self-confinement, mental health, loss & the human condition. Originally released in 2016, here from Juno Films is a recent region free DVD release of the film.
Dear Dead Delilah was US horror writer John Farris one & only foray into directing. The 1972 film is an often overtly talky southern fried murder mystery, with elements of proto-slasher & old hag horror. From Vinegar Syndrome here we have a recent duel Blu Ray & DVD issue of the film.
Kolobrzeg, Poland based Mothertape is a project who conjure up a subtle unbalancing mixture of micro beats, minimal moody-to-harmonic electronics, and often surreal field recordings. Seemingly it’s been active since around 2015, and Unexplained Mind Bruises is the projects second release- appearing in the form of a CD on Zoharum.
From Urashima, Red Box is the second CD box set of classic ghoulish 'n' violent Italian harsh noise & unpleasant electro psycho-moodscaping from Atrax Morgue. The five-CD set brings together a selection of eleven releases from the project, which all originally appeared between the early to mid-1990s & 2000s on the projects Slaughter Productions.
On Powerhouse films- here’s a four Blu Ray boxset of the William Castle films from between the late 1950s & early 1960s. The films here move from campy creature feature, onto playful haunted-house fair, through to psycho-drama, onto gothic horror. Castle was known for his gimmicks, and each film here has one, but what this set highlights most is his versatility, passion & flair for horror, in all its many flavours. And as we’ve come to expect from Powerhouse the release is literally bludging with extras.
Sol is one of the solo projects of the Danish musician and multi-instrumentalist Emil Brahe, who has several solo projects and is a member of the band Singvogel. The project started in 2004, with the first Sol album released in 2007 finding a mixture of Doom and sludge. In the period between 2007 to now, the project has released 7 full-length albums, 4 splits and 3 EP. Over time, Sol has transformed from a doom/sludge project into a more experimental and innovative project, combining more darker and apocalyptic moods in its sound. Sol is not a one-man project. Emil invites session musicians to record on each album. This new album, entitled Before We Disappear, was released on the German label Van Records as a limited edition on black or transparent vinyl LPs.
The name Charles Band has always been a byword for cheap and cheerful schlocky fun. During the 1980s and 90s he was the man responsible for producing/directing such wonderful trashy monster fare as The Ghoulies, Parasite, and The Puppet Master films. Most importantly for me he was the man who brought director Stuart Gordon to my attention when Gordon was to make Reanimator and From Beyond for Band’s Empire International Pictures. The two men have worked together on a number of occasions since that time and it’s a relationship that has always interested me. So, when Charles Band sets to work on a project I tend to take notice.
To any self-respecting metal fan US Trash titans Anthrax should need little or no introduction- since the early 1980’s the band has carved out their own thoroughly distinctive path in metal, offering up an often tuneful, buoyant & cheeky take on the Trash metal form. Since 1984 the band have released eleven studio albums, and while each have their moments, for me their fourth album 1988’s State Of Euphoria seemed the perfect refinement of their craft- blending together memorable melodies, great riff craft, & cheeky charm, with very effective moments heaviness, moodiness & a near perfectly flowing track list.
Recto-Verso is the latest selection of perversely singed-yet- creatively crafted walled noise from this Swiss project. The release came in the form of a CDR/ digital release on French label Required Rate Of Return- it takes ten fairly concise, yet artily tooled examples of wall matter.
Here we have a walled noise split- that brings together two unforgiving, through fairly interesting examples of wall-craft. This release appeared on the start of November 2018 on Ominous Recordings- in either the form of a C40 cassette or digital download.
Circle is one of the more recent releases from respected Russian wall-maker Sergey Pakhomov(Train Cemetery, Bitum, Leichen, ect)- who is known for his complex & often creative takes on walled noise & textured noise craft. This C60/ digital releases features two thirty minute examples of Mr Pakhomov textured sound craft- which is both highly detailed & inventive in its feel.
Oker is a four piece Norwegian improvisation ensemble who have released their first album Husene Våre Er Museer this year on the Sofa label. All four musicians have already been active in various other groups, recording for the Hubro label (where most of the Norwegian jazz I have heard comes from) and others.
Blurred Music is a three-CD release that offers up three separate performances that smudge the line between drone, modern composition, and improv. Each performance runs between forty minutes & just over the hour mark, and each is a fairly, shifting & eventful sonic trip.
Canadian band Blasphemy - one of the iconic bands within the black metal genre. Formed in 1984, they became one of the first within the genre. After releasing a demo in 1989 Blood Upon The Altar, they signed to Wild Rags, releasing their debut album Fallen Angel of Doom. Their second studio album, Gods Of War followed in 1993. After that, the band had a long break, reappearing in 2001, and have since released anotherdemo, as well as three live albums, last of these been this years Victory (Son of the Damned).
From 1965 Who Killed Teddy Bear is a groovy-to-grim psychodrama/thriller set to the backdrop of swinging 60’s New York clubland. Here from Network is a recent region B Blu Ray of the film.
It’s not very often that you come across a film that attempts to balance classy-to-lavish film-making and dramatic storytelling, with shocking depravity, gore and a growing sense oddness. But that’s exactly what this late 1960’s Japanese film attempts, and really succeeds in doing. Following on from their recent release of Horror Of Malformed Man, here on Arrow Video we get a much needed Blu Ray release of this early film from director Teruo Ishii.
Monk Illuminating A Manuscript is a relatively new wall noise project of Guatemalan artist Byron Muñoz, specifically focused on ambient/lowercase walls with largely linguistic and philosophical themes that stem from the history of the scribe.